Legislature

Colo. House, Senate divided on how much state will have to spend

Watching the Colorado legislature, evenly split on party lines for the first time in a decade, deal with budget issues is like observing a tennis match.

The Democratic-controlled state Senate on Monday reversed the GOP-led House's move last week on a revenue resolution, using the original estimate from legislative economists about how much money the state would have in the 2011-12 fiscal year.

The divided legislature will have to work out disagreements on the budget by April 15, the deadline for passing the budget.

The initial weeks have seen a volley between the chambers on what is normally a routine resolution declaring how much money will be available to spend.

The legislature is required by law every year to certify in a nonbinding resolution how much general fund money there will be to appropriate.

The state faces what is expected to be a budget shortfall of at least $1.1 billion.

So when the House last week passed the revenue resolution with a figure $195 million less than the estimate arrived at by legislative economists, Democrats said it was all political theater aimed at deflecting attention from a controversial Republican vote on school breakfasts. Democrats also asked Republicans where they would find another nearly $200 million in the budget to cut.

When the resolution reached the Senate floor Monday, Democrats flipped it right back to the original estimate made by legislative economists, saying $7.093 billion would be available.

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Senate Majority Leader John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, said it made no sense to plan to cut another $195 million out of the budget when the state still has an economic forecast in March before it finalizes the 2011-12 budget, which takes effect in July.

He said that cutting the budget needlessly would hurt people, saying that $195 million represented jobs for nearly 3,200 teachers.

"We're actually talking about real jobs and real children's education," Morse said. "Let's not cut this until we have to."

But Senate Republicans argued that, throughout the recession, estimates have continually been higher than actual revenues. It made sense to budget lower than the latest estimate, they said.

Senate Minority Leader Mike Kopp, R-Littleton, said that would help avoid making "last-minute, draconian cuts on the fly."

The Senate passed the reversed revenue resolution on a 20-15 party-line vote. The resolution now heads back to the House, where lawmakers today must either agree to the changes or seek a conference committee.

In a statement, House Speaker Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, said he was disappointed in the Senate's vote.

"Unfortunately, earlier today, Senate Democrats sent a clear message that they are more interested in holding on to the business-as-usual attitude of spending every dollar the state is anticipated to receive," he said.

Later in the day, the House Agriculture, Livestock and Natural Resources Committee approved a bill that would restore a sales-tax exemption on agricultural compounds — pesticides, chemicals, hormones, vaccines and bull semen. Restoring the sales-tax exemption, suspended for three years, would cost the state an estimated $3.7 million a year.

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